Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy in: Swan Lake
by Dark Raven Wrote
Summary: We all know the beauty of the story of Swan Lake. The love, the curse, the difference a change from day to night can make.I present to you without further ado a tale of sadness and tragedy that has been told and retold through many generations. slash, D/H
1. Act One

**Disclaimer: Don't own**

**Pairings: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter  
**

**Warnings: This will eventually be slash, that's malexmale guys, but i'll up the rating to M if i think it's necessary. Possible violence, gore, not sure. Soppy romance - most definitely. Be warned, sometimes the only way i know i'm doing my job is if i make you cry.**

**With thanks: The piece Night Flight by Vanessa Mae was my mood piece, if you would listen to this as you read the emotional effect will be more dramatic. Please review, please even if it's only one word.  
**

**Summary: We all know the beauty of the story of Swan Lake. The love, the curse, the difference a change from day to night can make. And i give you without further ado a tale of sadness and tragedy that has been told and retold through many generations. Allow me to present Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy in Swan Lake.**

**_Swan Lake_**

**Act One:**

Ten years ago, a legend was born. In the Enchanted Forest to the East of the kingdom of humans, a small boy was kidnapped from his home with his parents by an evil wizard. His parents were killed and his home destroyed. It had long been foretold that his boy would the one who could bring an end to this evil Lords reign of terror. So, the evil lord, frightened that this boy held some mysterious power, cast a curse upon the boy. By night, the boy would remain in his human form but he would be trapped, along with the forest's enchantress and her attendants, in the clearing beside the lake. However, from sunrise 'til sunset, the raven-haired boy would transform into a beautiful, ebony stag, free to roam but useless to his cause.

What the evil Wizard did not know, though, was as a child, the enchantress had heard of the prophesy and, as a gift, had placed a blessing on the child. This blessing told that any curse that be placed upon the child would always have some sort of counter. It only seemed fitting that, as the one thing the evil Wizard could not have, the counter should be love. And so on their first night in the clearing she had told the child_ 'You shall be released from this curse if your true love were to give you their heart. But, alas, my magic dwindles. If said true love were to give their heart to another, your death shall come and for this I can only apologise for it seems I cannot fully counter any curse of His.'_

So the child grew with a heavy weight on his shoulders. By night he would hide with his friends of the forest, afraid of capture or worse. If one looked carefully enough, it was quite possible that one might catch a glimpse of his shaggy black hair whipping around him or see a flicker of his pale skin against the green leaf or, if one was very lucky, one might happen to glance toward the forest and catch the hint of his ever blazing, emerald eyes. By day, he was seen rarely. Although there were no restrictions for him at this time, it was necessary for him to hide at this time also, because of the strong appetites of men, they often hunted in the part of the forest where he and his friends lived and what man in their right mind would not hunt such a stag as he. He remained hidden.

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Narcissa Malfoy plucked a nonexistent piece of dust from her deep, sea blue skirts. If she had been any less of a lady she would have sighed at her sons resistance. To be frank, she was growing tired of his ever more tedious excuses.

"Draco," she spoke and even though her voice was a murmur he looked up from his hands, which he had place in his lap. Narcissa made sure to make her voice firmer as she carried on. "It is time you were married. I wish to spend my golden years doting on my grandchildren and I cannot do this without a daughter-in-law. You will attend the ball this time. Make no mistake if you are not present, as with our last event, I will not hesitate to chose someone for you even though I know you detest the idea."

She faintly heard her husband calling for her in that background and rose from her chair gracefully. "Good evening, Draco. Think upon what we have discussed." She swept from the grand sitting room as he stood and bowed to her without another glance at him. She knew it had not really been a discussion, but if she had let her son speak a debate would have begun and, quite honestly, it was far to late in the day to be playing word games, especially with an ammeter.

Draco slumped back in his chair when he was sure he was the only one left in the room, letting out an audible huff. His icy, blue eyes staring into the roaring fire in front of him as he contemplated his situation. It was true that he was almost nineteen years old. Although he was an only child himself, he knew all of his cousins had been married by seventeen, male or female. His parents had been surprisingly lenient when it came to the subject of marriage. As a child he had dreaded the process of choosing a spouse that was to come later, predicting that his father would be overbearing and forceful. It turned out that he need not have worried, his parents had let him be for more than two years longer than they should have so the single conclusion he could come to was that this was, indeed, his fault. He should have acted sooner.

It was strange for him to think that within the next two days he would have proposed to someone. A complete stranger. It was true that he had been raised to perfection when it came to social matters, but his mind always resisted whenever he even thought of a marriage without love. Draco was not a fool. He knew any person his mother picked would likely put an end to his romanticism.

Draco stood, clasping his hands behind his back, and wandered to the nearest of the majestic, floor to ceiling windows that lined the living area. He brushed the heavy curtain of deep green aside and peeked out though the glass. He could see the town down below the castle, the townsfolk bustling to finish their days work before the sun set, although he could see whispers of violet already curling in the sky over the enchanted forest. Had he really woken so early?

He had always been curious about the forest but its many secrets remained guarded by the lush greenery of the trees. His teacher said, when he had asked about venturing in, that only the bravest, or the stupidest, hunters went in and many never came back out. During the day, when he looked out at the forest like now, Draco could not understand how it was so frightening. In his eyes it looked like the most wondrous place where, myth said, fairies still lingered, angels still blessed and elves still dance. Once, when he had been younger, he had looked out at the distant expanse and just watched for hours as the snow swept branches glistened under the starlit sky. He had imagined that some of those lights were not even related to the snow, but were actually the ethereal glow of pixies as they swept around a clearing of heavenly beings. To Draco, the enchanted forest was an adventure, not a doom.

And just like that, he made his decision.

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It did not take Draco long to reach the outermost border of the enchanted forest. His horse panted with exertion beneath him and so he eased the pace, but his eager heart did not waver from its course. He wanted to find out the secrets that this forest had long been hiding.

The sun was still below the horizon in front of him, although the tendrils of violet that had been barely visible when he set out were now becoming increasingly violent as they spread across the sky. The last stars were fading with the light and the crescent moon was slowly diminishing as clouds overpowered the heavens above.

He travelled for most of the day without encountering any unfriendly beasts or urgent dangers bar the odd, messily set hunter's trap. By the time evening came and the sun was lowering back towards the western horizon and his home, Draco knew he needed to rest. His horse needed water and he needed to pause for food. Therefore, when he came upon the clearing, he did not stop to examine the space but instead jumped athletically from his stead and lead the animal to the lake. While his horse was guzzling down as much of the liquid as it could, Draco gazed into the pool and for the first time wondered at how pure it was.

The sky was darkening swiftly, so he released his stead, confident that the animal would stay near and turned back to the water. It was completely still and crystal clear, sparkling under the dying sun. Draco drew his hand back before he could touch it, afraid he would disturb some natural order. Instead he stood to his full height and looked out across the wide expanse of crystal liquid.

He froze.

The stag did not seem to have noticed him yet. Its head was lowered to the water, its neck arching gracefully so the angle at which its muzzle entered the water was perfect for precision. Everything about the creature was beautiful; from the curves and sharp jolts of its antler to the delicate head, its eyes lowered in concentration and its sweeping eyelashes almost indistinguishable. Its legs were lithe and delicate and its hooves polished like the water it stood in. The bow of its back was not subtle nor harsh but perfect. Its hind legs were muscled, powerful and agile. Its coat was black as ebony and seemed to have the ability to gleam in any light as it was now in the radiance of the setting sun. The water it lapped softly from barely rippled beneath it. What once had been weeds were now turned to flowers by its presence as if it held the whole forest in a suspended spell.

Suddenly, Draco horse nickered behind him and the stag's entire body tensed, its ear shooting up to reveal fragile white puffs of fur as white as fresh snow inside them. It raised its head slowly not once looking up from the water beneath it. Slowly, almost painfully so, it flickered its eyes up, its eyelashes arcing through the air, to reveal a pair of dazzling, pure emerald eyes. They were deep, the irises a more innocent green than new grass in spring.

They stared at each other for what could have been minutes or years. Draco grew strangely aware of the stag in that time. Of how its eyes seemed haunted and hollowed. He wished with all his heart that he could wade out into the water just so he could be that little bit closer to the enchanting creature, to comfort it, but something held him back. Those eyes would not release him from their spell.

It was the stag that broke the contact first. It swished its mighty head to the west, where the sun was growing ever closer to the horizon. Angry mauves flared across the sky, mixing with flames of blood red and flares of sharp pinks. The sun descended quickly towards its rest. The stags vast jewelled eyes became sombre and sorrowful as it waited for something.

As the last streaks of fury seeped below the horizon it began and the stag lowered its head in what Draco could only perceive as shame. It started with a spark of white below the water on which the beauty of the sunset was being reflected in full, every vein of colour. The flash of ethereal white was blinding as it coursed suddenly over the stag. The beast flung its head up, its neck arcing back painfully, and a mournful whine vibrated from its throat. Airy tendrils of ashen radiance wafted from the creature as its body morphed and shimmered in a heat wave.

When the light subsided with the very last weak rays of the sun, Draco's eyes widened at the sight before him. A boy.

**Reviews if you please. My eternal gratitude.**

**Dark Raven  
**


	2. Act Two

A/N:Sorry i've been so long but i've finally got my act together, don't know how good this chapter is, but it's been half done for a while and i've suddenly gone on a writing splurge and am trying to update all of my unfinished stories - almost there actually. Review if you would please.

This is the 2nd part out of 4. For the moment, un-betad  
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**Act Two  
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_When the light subsided with the very last weak rays of the sun, Draco's eyes widened at the sight before him. A boy._

Wild, black locks whipped around his pale cheeks in the cold breeze that arrived with the new night. His eyes, the everlasting emerald of fresh life, were exactly the same. A painful mourning resonated from them in waves, darkening the deep colour of his irises further, as if he were pleading to Draco for help. A single tear trickled down his ashen cheek that was luminous in the new moonlight. It slid passed his rosy lips and off his firm but yet somehow boyish chin to fall the length of his nature clad body to perish in the folds of the lightly rippling folds of the crystal water below.

The boy never wavered his gaze, not once, as Draco's own eyes gazed at him, taking in the sight. The moon above them slowly began to crawl across the sky, evidence of the sorrowful fact that time stood still for no man.

It was the growling of a stomach echoing through the clearing that broke their trance several hours later. Draco felt his seizing muscles flare angrily when he attempted to move them. The boy across from him seemed to have no such trouble as he leapt from the water without making so much as ripple. He disappeared into the leafy bushes behind him before Draco could even react to his sudden movement. He was gone.

Over the next hour, Draco found time moving abnormally quickly around him, he also found that berries of the forest that should not, in all truth, really have been growing at that point in the year were delicious. It was only after his little feast and settling his horse for the night, that Draco found time slowing back to its usual crawling pace. He felt lonely and abandoned as he looked up into the starlit heavens.

It was unusual to have such a clear night in these parts of the country and he wondered if all the nights of the Enchanted Forest were this clear. His thoughts did not dally on this subject for long though and soon he was drawn back to the boy turned stag, and he was sure it was this way round and not vice versa. Something in the boy's gaze told him he had originally been a human, something moral, something emotional.

"I wonder what name he goes by…" His breath clouded in front of him at his whisper. Draco sighed and turned onto his side, pulling his blanket further around himself, not that it was doing much good. He grunted as he reached down into his pocket, slipped out his wand and murmured a quick warming charm over himself. The effect was immediate and he felt a soothing warmth seep into his bones. Even with this new warmth, though, time did not speed up.

It was almost half way through the night when Draco, who was infuriatingly still awake, needed to cast his warming charm again. He mumbled the words while taking the opportunity to quickly scan the immediate vicinity. He had been aware of eyes watching him from a distance for some time now. He had first noticed the prickle on the back of his neck, then the way the hairs on his arms stood on end in discomfort. It was the crackle of dry twigs that gave his companion away, however, although he could no know what it was. It could have been anything from a bird to a fox to, dare he hope, the boy.

His questions were answered when he heard halting footsteps approaching from behind him. He rolled, albeit slowly, onto his other side and watched as the slight boy came nearer. His steps were apprehensive and his breaths uneven. His eyes were alight with fear, almost glowing into the darkness. He stopped completely every time Draco made even the smallest move. When he decided to sit up he was afraid the other boy would run back the way he came but he just stopped and stared.

When he stood only a horse's length away, the boy gradually lowered himself to the ground. Although he seemed to be trying to feign a casual demeanour, Draco could see that ever muscle in his body was coiled to spring into action at any moment.

"…Harry…" His voice was a cool whisper, which could barely be heard by the human ear. It whistled into the air and wove into nature herself, melting into the ears of only the most rapt listeners. In Draco's opinion, though, there was not a single person on the planet that could have been anything but awed by that voice and he defied anyone not to be.

His thoughts were tangled and although he had heard the words, he could make no sense of them. "Excuse me?" He tried his best to make his voice as soft as his companions but even so the boy flinched away.

"You asked my name," the boy muttered, lowering his eyes. "Harry." Draco cocked his head, watching the boy intently before speaking.

"How long have you been watching me?"

"Most of the night." Was Draco's reply and the boy curled into himself.

"Why?" He allowed a kindness to seep into his voice that his parents had forbidden him from using since childhood. Harry took a long time to reply and with each passing second he flinched back further. The answer he received was not what he expected, if he could have commented he would have said it was the other way round.

"You fascinate me."

"Why?" The boy, now dubbed Harry, shrugged his slim shoulders the slightest amount and shifted closer to Draco. A warm feeling spread across his pale skin at the sight of the boy already beginning to trust him and they had barely had a proper conversation.

The night progressed far too quickly for Draco's liking. During time's course, Draco managed to somehow convince Harry that he was not some fantastical creature from over the horizon and they began to converse. They talked of their severely differing childhoods and of survival, how they managed it. Then the topic of Draco's stay in the forest raised its head.

"How long will you remain here?" Harry asked, tentative as always and, by this point, Draco had accepted it was a part of his nature, much like the arrogant streak in his own.

"I'll stay tomorrow. Then I must return. My mother is hosting a grand ball the night after next so I may choose my bride."

"Bride? I do not understand this term." Harry became uncertain again, shifting backwards. Draco had found, over the past few hours, that he did this. With his level of comfort he would shift the distance between himself and Draco.

"Marriage. Hmm, bonding to someone, 'until death do us part.'" Draco quoted.

"Why would you have a time limit on such a choice though?" Harry cocked his head to the side, obviously not able to comprehend.

"I told you I was of royal blood," Draco waited for the slow nod of affirmation. "The royal need an heir to carry on this bloodline. My parents have been lenient. I should have been married years ago."

"But, if it's 'until death do us part' shouldn't the decision be made carefully. I don't understand." Draco smiled slightly, it was comforting to be with someone who did not remind him of the worries of his world. Harry was different from anyone he had ever met. He never judged because he had no understanding of Draco's society above the basics that were an innate part of a human.

They let the subject drop and moved on to what they could do tomorrow, once Draco managed to reassure Harry that, yes, he would very much like to spend the day in his company. Planning was key, Harry said in his ever soft voice, because they would not be able to communicate in any sort of a definite fashion tomorrow once he was not in his human form. Draco paused at that, critically analysing Harry. His mind just didn't seem to be able to bend around the fact that tomorrow morning he would wake and this boy would be…an animal.

They slept.

But when he woke, sure enough, Draco felt a gentle, sleek feeling of something other than skin rubbing against his back as the large creature breathed behind him. When he sat up, it was not to look at the angelic face of the adolescent boy, but to face to ebony coat of the great stag, its antlers jutting out before him. Draco took comfort in the fact that when this magnificent creature awoke, the same eyes he had been staring into the entirety of the previous night would still be the same. He grinned subtly to himself and stood, wincing as a shred of sunlight pierced through the canopy of trees and straight into his eyes, blinding him momentarily.

Upon scanning the clearing, he found his horse nestled in a small crop of bushes not too far off, obviously still asleep. Dew was dripping from pond plants and flowers, creating musical sounds as the drops of pearlescent liquid slid into the water, generating ripples that connected and danced with one another. A bird sang nearby and from the corner of his eye he caught a rabbit ducking into its burrow. He could learn to love this place, he knew, but this dream would end soon and he would not be able to come back.

It was then that the stag decided it was time to rise. He stood taller than Draco, its shoulder exactly the same height as his brow. The warm coat looked inviting. The stag dropped its head as if in consent and Draco found his forehead resting steadily against the black silk. He relaxed against the creature. He could feel the unused power of the muscle under where his head rested, gradually sinking into the softness of the fur. He could feel the energy, the need to _run, _to release some of that energy. He felt awed and honoured and grateful that it was he that had been chosen to experience such a fantastic thing that nature had granted to live.

Their day was filled with play. With running around in the clearing, with bounding through the forest on horseback seeking out the marvellous stag, with snatching berries from their twigs as they galloped past. After hours of exercising, they found themselves crashing into the once peaceful pool, attempting to regain their breathing patterns and loose some of the shining sweat that had developed over their bodies. Draco released his horse and moved to wallow near where Harry was paddling quietly from one end of the rich pool to the other. He gestured the enchanting creature over. It obeyed without question.

Draco stealthily jumped from the pool, plunging only his legs back in as he sat on the edge. The stag stood still in front of him. He gently lay his hand down on the beast's muzzle, vaguely surprised by the softness of it, then slid his fingers up to its forehead, accidentally making the movement more sensual than he would have liked. His fingertips skimmed across the smooth expanse of velvet that was his back, radiating in the intense supremacy he found there. He sketched every rib, every muscle. He sat there for so long he did not even notice when the sun crept below the horizon until the stag leapt playfully back, its head lowered in a light thankful bow that was superior and grand. Then the flash came and Harry was soon paddling in the water in front of him, his long locks shining blue in the single last ray of the sun as they shifted around him in the water.

"Come with me." Draco said suddenly, flicking his foot up to splash the other boy. Harry glanced at him questioningly before ducking under the water and darting towards him like a fish made to swim, his pale skin luminescent. When he re-emerged it was to lean against the side of the pool beside where Draco sat, by now his clothes almost dry. "Come back with me."

"I can't. I'm not allowed out of the forest at night."

"So travel with me tomorrow in the day. You don't know what will happen when you change, for all you know you could be allowed to stay."

"But what if it goes the other way, what if something really bad happens?" Draco glance down at him, meeting his eyes, trying to convey his seriousness and sincerity.

"I'll protect you, whatever happens, I'll protect you." They stared at each other before Harry gave a hesitant nod, his head stuttering as it dipped and then came back up. But the smile that blossomed on Draco's face seemed to make up for any pending danger as he could not help the blooming smile that followed.

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Meanwhile, a short way away, in the darker reaches of the forest, where shadow ruled and daylight never reached, Lord Voldemort strode purposefully in front of his cauldron. He glared down at the scene before him. The Prince had no _right _to meddle in these affairs. The plan was going perfectly, with the Potter boy stuck helplessly in the woods he could bide his time while his power built back to its original great heights.

But now, with that Malfoy brat skulking around there was the possibility that Potter would escape his grasp thanks to that old hag's prying ways. But the enchantress had already paid dearly for what she had done, every year losing one of her attendants until it was finally her turn. She would not be sticking her nose into his business anymore. For the moment, though, he needed some way to stop the events that were happening right that second.

An evil sneer emerged onto his face as a thought came to him. He had to fall in love. But looks were deceptive. And if the Malfoy heir were to admit his love for another. The result: death.

"BELLATIX!!"

He whirled his cloak around his shoulders dramatically.

Lord Voldemort does not lose, he snarled.

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Review if you would please

Dark Raven 4426


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